


Women of Hong Kong Station

by auworksforme



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Character Study, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-03
Updated: 2013-08-16
Packaged: 2017-12-22 08:26:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/911037
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/auworksforme/pseuds/auworksforme
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Just some sketches that wouldn't leave my head. Four original (female) characters in the Pacific Rim world.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Zanele

Zanele Mothuoa is 27 years old. She was born in South Africa as the sixth daughter of her mother and the ninth of her father. Nicknamed ‘Volcano’ because of her temper and sudden tantrums, an older brother decided to teach her any fighting style under the sun. First for amusement, later because the money he made of it and the satisfaction it gave her. With every victory, the regularity of her tantrums lessened. Zanele is very used to people not counting her as a “real” woman because she’s tall, broad-shouldered and strong, never complains about anything and does speak very little. She doesn’t take any advice, nor gives it. Her life is of highs and lows, the thrills of fighting, _surviving_ versus the silent meditation she does when she’s not fighting, sleeping or eating. Her biggest secret is that she’s ninety percent blind on her left side, a scar from a foul fight when she was fourteen. In a foul rage (the anger was a family thing) her brother stabbed her opponent to death. That assured Zanele that she _never ever_ wanted to kill another human being. Kaiju on the other hand ..

She met her half-brother Tebogo at their father’s funeral. He was her complete opposite in almost anything: addicted to mythology, biology, physiology, every –ology that helped him understand this world. A softie in the words of her brothers and mother, but with Tebogo around, Zanele didn’t need the hours of meditation to keep the magma down that was always bubbling up inside her. 

Four years later, the Mid African Safety Movement (MASM) started their Jaeger program. Tebogo was first attached, scribbling his name under many protocols and functional designs. Zanele joined in when it come out she was Kivuli Dima (Shadow Cheetah in Swahili), the one that had turned fighting into art. Curious about the rest of the world and bored by the little Kaiju that only came here when the wind was right, both of them were the first to sign up for the international program in Hong Kong. Before that, it took Zanele threatening to step out to have Tebogo be allowed to experiment with Kaiju poisons. They arrive with Kivuli Dima in Hong Kong with their Jaeger covered in an anti-poison that severely distressed the monsters. The collar shaped like a crown (with the points of it dripping anti-poison) was just Tebogo tipping his hat to the skills of his half-sister.  


~

On their first day Chuck Hansen wondered if this arrival meant Africa had access to electricity and technical knowledge these days. Before Stacker Pentecost could (verbally) cut him in two ( _What a stupid remark, had he ever wondered at his Marshall's heritage_ ), Tebogo had replied: “I didn’t know the Neanderthal delinquents of the jail island still aren’t allowed to educate themselves and thusly better their station. Parts of Africa - which is a continent, not a country, just to underline that - have access to electricity and technical knowledge. But even the people of the countries and parts that don't, know better than to let tongue wag before their brain sings. We call it thinking. Does Australia has access to that?” Stacker was glad those words had lowered Zanele’s fists. She looked like she would be tough to pull off someone. During their first demonstrations Zanele showed him how right he was. She put everyone down, even when the pilots teamed up and it became two against one. Still, he was glad to have another team around. The two might even inspire the others to step up their game. 


	2. Siobhan

People at the station were only just getting used to the new team when a new pilot arrived. A single one, a pioneer. In her small, crawling Jaeger Creidhne (Irish mythological gold/bronze/brass smith), Siobhan was forced upon Stacker Pentecost because basically: the station of the European Union was fed up with her. Her shock of red hair immediately got her dubbed ‘Merida’, which annoyed her to no end: “That girl is fucking Scottish! Do you want an Irish foot up your ass to make sure you never make that mistake again?” Next to that she was here to “show the big lumps why smaller is better sometimes” and explain how she had designed an alloy that could cut through Kaiju skin. Siobhan admitted she had been inspired by X-Men’s Wolverine. 

Siobhan O’Neal was – at 19 – the Benjamin of the station. She had been building ‘robots’ since she was six years old, always needing to know what made something tick. Her dyslexia driving her to endless frustration because of the theory side of things, she experimented by herself with countless Build Your Own Ship/Bot/Machine sets. What her eyes saw, her hands made. From time to time her parents tried to interest her in more ‘feminine’ things, in social interaction or anything that would make her leave her basement, but failed every time. 

She built her first Jaeger prototype (scale: 1 – 100) when she was eleven. It was a chameleon like clinger with two extra legs, all ending in scalpels that were unbreakable and could cut through Kaiju skin. The pilot would have to lie down on her belly to operate it. After Interpol was really _very_ sure that Siobhan’s basement projects weren’t part of some terrorist organization, she was (at the age of sixteen) offered an internship at the EU station. When it turned out that you could hardly test Jaegers without Kaiju around, they hauled Stacker Pentecost if he was interested in the ‘Renewed Architect of Modern Jaegers’. He probably hadn’t expected her to be so petite and so loud. 


	3. Pilar

Pilar had watched the world burn on K-Day. The day that used to be her birthday, the day that had landed her a holiday to San Francisco after endless whining to finally be allowed to leave Columbia. Simón had, of course -was he ever not with her- had been there as well. Both had seen the world torn apart, all the familiar land marks (familiar from the endless illegal copies of American TV-shows they watched) topple over, played with like it was paper and strings.

Pilar (as always, there was a reason her father called her his lucky mascot) had escaped unscathed. Not even singed clothes, no scratches or even a peck of dirt on the designer outfit in which she had planned to take over the city by the bay. Simón left the hospital with loss of hearing in his right ear, no amount of Pilar’s money could change that.

Before K-Day, Pilar had dressed like the young, rich woman her upbringing and surrounding society had taught her to. Lots of jewelry, lots of fancy clothing and never a hair out of place. After that day, Pilar felt like a soldier surviving a guerrilla attack. She cut and shaved off all of her hair, replaced light, satin dresses with cargo pants, boots and shirts. She started exercising, reading up on battle tactics and everything related to alien species. Simón, her first love, her loyal follower, stuck to the sidelines and watched.

When she heard about the Jaeger program, she was first in line to get in. Pilar never wanted to suffer through something like K-Day again, never wanted to see that suffering again. Simón tried to hold her back, wanted her to let the experts do this. They fought so badly that it broke huge shards off their connection, ending in a relationship that wasn’t love, but little more than ‘I’m used to his/her presence’. Pilar even left him behind in Colombia when she flew into Hong Kong, eager to get into the program.   
Simón, and a dozen of her father’s security, followed her there. She tried to buy them off, tried to push Simón away until the Hansen’s showed that you didn’t need a sparkly, _all rainbows and puppies_ , connection to get into the drift.

Pilar told Simón that both of them would try out for Jaeger pilots. If she wouldn’t get in, she would go with them. If she would, she’d give all her savings to the Jaeger station, be okay with being written out of her father’s will and drop the family name. Because sometimes saving the world was better than the family image.

The decision had flown out of her mouth before her mind caught up and yes, she regretted it for a while, but K-Day had left huge scars on the inside of her skull. Pilar had to do something, no matter what cost.

Pilar and Simón were amazing drifters, of course. The sole reason why they were one of the first to get a new Jaeger was because it could be build around them, using elements from their drift. Pilar was thrilled, although having Simón so close, having to show the world how much they had shared, made her just slightly terrified. Simón was simply plain terrified.


End file.
